Recap: 'Survivor: One World' - 'I'm No Dummy'

Pre-credit sequence. Jay is gone and Troyzan returns to Tikiano camp aware that he's almost certainly next in line. "It is what it is. Nothing personal," Sabrina tells Troyzan. "Take it as a compliment," Christina tells him. Troyzan tries stirring up aggravation around the fire and ends up in a shouting match with Alicia. "I don't see why he's upset with me. I didn't vote for him," Alicia says truthfully, albeit with a caveat. "I'm totally pissed off," Troyzan says, vowing that when he gets pissed off, he gets fired up and he vows to win every Immunity from now on. "This is just Troyzan versus everybody else," he announces.

Let me protest my masculinity with a barbaric, "It's not FAAAAAAIR." Troyzan launches his hostility campaign the next morning. He walks up to Chelsea and makes a "It's just not fair!" protest. Chelsea tries explaining that it's just a game, but Troyzan says that he has the right to be angry. Twisting the knife, Chelsea tells Troyzan to be like Jonas and take it like a man, even adding that Jonas deserves to be there more than he does. "I don't know about that," an incredulous Troyzan says. Apparently somebody's got some emotional scars and he grumbles, "These girls are kinda acting like what a lot of women act like in real life. They get their house. They get their food. They get all their stuff. And then as soon as they feel satisfied, they go, "Oh, guess what, we don't need you anymore.'" Wow. That's... not appealing. Tree-mail suggests that they have an auction coming up. They're playing with real cash. The women all want food (because that's what women want after their get their houses). Troyzan is hoping for an Immunity clue or something.

Let them eat cake. It's "Survivor" Auction time. Everybody has $500. And, as always, the auction will stop without warning. The first item is three donuts and an iced coffee. Chelsea buys it for $160. Up next is a plate with chips and guacamole, plus a margarita. Sabrina wants it and she spends $400. A protein shake with two bananas gets a $100 bid from Leif. Poor Kat's worried she won't be able to spend her money. Up next is a "Survivor" shower and a toothbrush. Kim buys a $40 shower. "Have fun," Jeff Probst tells her. Everybody hoots and whistles as Kim strips down. BLT, chips and a cold iced tea? Kat finally finds a taker for her money and spends $180. She's shocked and pleased to discover bacon on her BLT. Peanut butter and chocolate prompts a bidding war won by Kim for $200+. Alicia is bitter, but how do you let yourself be outbid in an auction where you can't take the money with you and the food could stop coming at any moment? Alicia is not smart. Or do you get to take the money with you? It looks like "Yes," because Poopy Pants has set his $500 aside to fix the shocks on his Jeep. Letters from home go up next. Alicia bids $500 immediately for a letter and cries as she reads her letter from her dad. Soon, everybody is crying with Alicia. Suddenly, Poopy Pants's shocks don't seem so important. Probst makes it clear that anybody else can get a letter for $500 and Poopy Pants gives up his shocks. "I feel completely alone," Troyzan cries. Finally, what Troyzan wants comes up for bid. Troyzan spends $420 for an advantage at Immunity after Christina drops out of the bidding. Troyzan wants congratulations for his bid, but nobody's very gracious. A covered item and a note goes to a giddy Kat for $160. It's an entire cake. The note says that she bought the cake for the entire tribe. They have 60 seconds to devour the cake. They chow down on cake by the handful. It doesn't get nearly as gross as I might have hoped for. I was hoping for roasted-pig-challenge-level disgustingness. Boo.

Scaredy Kat. Back at camp, Troyzan opens his $420 Immunity Advantage. It moves him directly into the second round of the upcoming challenge. That helps, sure. "You think that you have me outsmarted. They don't. They're very scared," Troyzan says, embarking on a journey into the jungle in the hopes of finding a new Hidden Immunity Idol. He looks in the used tree-knots and under the usual rocks. With Kim leading the way, the other eight players also go out in search of their own Idols. Chelsea's bitter about Christina dropping out of the bidding for the Immunity clue. "Right now, Troy is going to put more heart into this game than most of the people here," Chelsea acknowledges. Troy decides to fake everybody out, putting a piece of cloth in his pocket with people watching. Kim is worried. Kat tries to calm everybody down. That's a scary thought. Kat, The Voice of Reason.

Nine versus One: You're doing it wrong. As we know, Immunity is back up for grabs and it's actually a three-tiered challenge regurgitated from previous challenges. Lazy. First, they have to race to untangle knotted ropes. The first four to finish go do that trampoline target shoot. The first two to finish that go to a slingshot challenge where you have to knock out three targets in a row. Joining Troyzan in the second round are Poopy Pants, Kim and Christina. Troyzan is the first to advance out of the second round. "This is my island! You can't beat me," he roars. Wow. In a stunning upset, Poopy Pants advances to the finals against Troyzan. Who would have predicted that? Both Troyzan and Poopy Pants move within one target of winning. Troyzan wins! "Don't [bleep] with me," says Troyzan, who swears that he's only been going 50 percent to this point. The women try telling him that he only bought an extra week.

Plan B. Back to Tikiano. Troyzan wears his necklace proudly. Poopy Pants calls the tribe together and urges Troyzan to be noble if he wins. Troyzan protests that he can't change his personality and that he's just competitive. Troyzan gushes that this is everybody's worst-case-scenario. Indeed, Chelsea and Kim have to realign their strategy and they're scrambling. They worry that taking a girl out would create chaos or paranoia, so it has to be either Poopy Pants or Leif out. Coincidentally, Poopy Pants is washing Leif's face and they agree that they're both in trouble. Troyzan decides to mobilize the relative outcasts, propositioning Leif, Poopy Pants, Alicia and Christina. He makes what is a logical plea and everybody nods politely. "Troy is on to something," admits Alicia. Kim is going to get Troyzan's vote, but will anybody join him?

Tribal Council. Troyzan again blames his competitive juices for his hostility. Sabrina says that Troyzan has morphed into a creature she doesn't recognize and she tries reminding him that if he's nasty to everybody, he won't be likable. "You're not my mother," Troyzan says. "I'm just speaking with truth. If you can't handle truth..." Sabrina says. Troyzan starts yelling at Sabrina and calling her "Mrs. Truth." This is unpleasant. Chelsea says everybody is getting paranoid and Troyzan stokes said paranoia by reminding Poopy Pants, Christina, Alicia and Leif what they can gain by voting Kim out. "What you're promising them is only going to work if you win every single Immunity challenge," Chelsea says. Kim tries claiming that Troyzan's plan only makes sense if you know Alicia and Christina are at the bottom and Kat and Sabrina QUICKLY jump in to agree that that may not be the case. Boy, that doesn't look at all sketchy. Alicia says that if any of the women go to Troy, the other women would be screwed and Troyzan wisely interjects, "It's not going to me. It's for yourselves."

Bottom Line: What a weird edit for Troyzan, who was simultaneously depicted as a hyper-adrenalized misogynist and The Last Sane Man in Samoa. If this were a movie, [Troyzan would very clearly be played by Mel Gibson.] That makes it hard to root for him, but you can't dispute that his voting plan was possibly smartest available plan for anybody hoping to flip the script of the game. One thing we haven't seen nearly enough of is how Kim and Chelsea handled Christina and Alicia upon their return after the Merge. Promises were obviously made and confidences exchanged. It's not that Troyzan's plan was flawless and I think there was more security in Alicia and Christina sticking with the status quo, especially with Kim and Chelsea making such a quick and correct read of the situation, but you couldn't blame them for being tempted and they only barely seemed to be. Troyzan, whether you liked his scorched earth approach or hated it, at least made this episode interesting, though it would have been even more interesting if he could have gotten Kim out. In fact, there's really no way Troyzan could be playing this better. Everybody wants him out and they want him out for good reason. His only play is to keep winning Immunities and to psych everybody out, throw the main alliance into disarray and hope that somehow he's still standing after a few wacky things happen. And this is such a boring group that I'll welcome a sexist lunatic shaking things up if he gets me through the season.

Bottom Line, II: It was very easy to admire Leif for what he was doing out there and the effort he was putting into everything, but it wasn't easy to root for a guy who didn't appear to be putting any strategic effort into the game at all. He coasted with a couple different alliances and he'll probably be best remember for inadvertently opening the door for Colton's ridiculous Immunity forfeit. And for sleeping in a box. If you're Chelsea and Kim, Poopy Pants's weirdly strong Immunity performance probably was a reason for pause, but Poopy Pants seems destined for the Crazy Person We Could Beat in the Finale role, while Leif might have proven likable to a jury. TV-wise, we lose nothing by losing Leif.

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

What I thought was crazy was that Tarzan voted for Lief instead of for Kim. I guess he was worried about the women's votes for him, but if he'd gone for Kim it would have been a triple-tie for Kim, Lief, and Tarzan. Now, that would have been interesting!

But ultimately wouldn't have mattered. After a tie vote, they would all re-vote. Then the women could just throw all 6 votes against whoever hadn't played the idol, or who was their top target.

What I'll never understand is why Poopy Pants and Lief were going along with the girls plan the last few weeks helping them vote off Mike/Jay? They clearly knew that they were next to go once Jay/Troyzan were voted out by the women.

Yup. Dumb, either these survivors are dumb or the editors are not doing even a remotely competent job of showing us what is going on in the periphery. All it does it lead the viewers to resent a majority of the tribe.

This season is going to be taught in psychology classes for years to come, or at least Pop Culture 101. What a character study this has been, and to think it's come all the way from us thinking Colton was a racist, to a bigot, to cheering him leave the game, to an instant merge to a bunch of women acting like the secret service to Troyzan's prostitute. I mean, it's mind-blowing if you think about the amount of drama that has been packed into this season. And it'll only be getting better by the looks of next week. I feel bad for the ones who gave up. That may have been the most intense Tribal's since the original Russell ones.

Yeah ... so far based on reading the recaps the two weeks since I gave it up, I've seen nothing in the vaguely intelligent moves to make up for the utter stupidity early on. I'm happy missing this particular character study.

Troyzan doesn't seem to be sexist, he clearly respects Kim for the way she plays the game and has no hatred towards women. He has probably been scorned by a woman in the past, and that 3 sentence blurb makes better television so thats what the show put in there. If you read between the lines of the ediing, you can see that troy isn't really sexist. There was no way to edit Colton to make him appear as racist as we saw, he actually is that racist. I am rooting for Troyzan all the way, just like i was rooting for Ozzy last season. When your on the ground and being kicked and you still can't be beaten, that makes you a worthwhile player.

I kind of agree. The women have been mean with their newfound power. Their comments and arrogance I've turned against them. Openly cheering for people is kind of childish. I dislike it whenever powered group acts like this. I don't see much difference between what Alicia/Colton were doing to Cristina and what Sabrina/Kim/Chelsea are now doing to Troy, except that Troy is acting a fool back.

I can see why Kim wants to bring Chelsea to tribe, she really is clueless about strategy, numbers, etc. Her whole belief that a new 5 of Troyzan, Poopy Pants, Leif, Christina, and Alicia couldn't just vote off the rest of the other girls was Kat-level stupid.

I think its hilarious that everyone feels the need to quickly jump on the idea that Troyzan is this crazy, sexist misogynist, because of one line. I'm not sure that what he said is any more sexist than Chelsea telling him to take it like a man.

And if I'm not mistaken, at the beginning of this game, was it not the women of this game coming over to the men and begging for help? I agree that generalities are always questionable but based on his experience in this game, I think they ring true, again, for this group of women.

Have any of them other than Kim actually done much this season?

Maybe it is not as obvious to the players out there, but the core four of Kim, Chelsea, Sabrina and Kat have not been shy about how tight they are. I know Alicia was their 5th on their original tribe, but Christina has always been on the outside looking in. Clearly Leif understood the situation, but Tarzan is apparently a wild card with zero logic. How is it unclear at this point that the women are not on his side. There have been 3 tribals since the merge and 3 guys going home. Shouldn't he realize at this point that he's in this game as long as the women allow him to be?

I'm always frustrated watching people refuse to take chances and only making the safe choice which ultimately gains them nothing. With the women Christina is at best 6th. Aligning with Troy puts her no worse than 5th, and actually probably higher given that none of women like her, so she'd be a great choice to go to the finals with. Alicia was really the only one with nothing to gain.

Telling a male to "take it like a man" is a manipulative technique used by women to undercut men and bring them down a level... not to tell him to behave with "dignity and grace." Because when she blindsided her boy, he wasn't taking it with grace, he was shocked.

To Chris's later point...I'd say Christina is in the same situation Cochran was in last season. On the bottom of his alliance, so he flips, only to end up on the bottom of the new group. Not sure what the play is in that situation.

Dan,
I disagree that Christina is in the same situation as Cochran. There were two very solid 6 vs 6 alliances when Cochran flipped. Cochran flipped himself into an already established 6 person alliance.

Christina was being asked to join the 3 person alliance of guys, but with Alicia (whos also out of teh core 4 girls alliance).

If Christina/Alicia were concerned about flipping to join an alliance in which the women would be outnumber 2 to 3, then they could have eventually flipped back against the guys in the future and since the remaining women would always outnumber the guys.

Alicia won't flip (yet) because she still thinks she has a solid girls alliance for the top. I can see where Christina would realize that and not want to make herself more of a target. She may be trying to better her position...oh, who am I kidding? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HER? I haaaate passive Survivor players!

I don't think it is similar to cochran. This would be a new alliance with people who have made no previous promises to each other. Plus most of them would probably want her in the final 3 with them (that could also be the case with the current alliance tho)

If Christina wanted to attempt to ingratiate herself into an alliance then outbidding Troyzan would have been the move to try. Of course she only bid in the first place after getting pushed into it by other girls.

What they need to do (and it looks like it might happen next week) is get Christina, Alicia, and either Kat and Sab and team up with Troy and Tarzan so they still have the 5 majority and then 3 girls within that 5. They just gotta blindside Kim so she doesn't play her idol.

Dan,
I would audition, but I wouldn't last long on Survivor. I start to go insane when I get hungry, and yell at everyone. I'd end up losing the final vote for sure.

Jerry,
Remember they had no idea when the auction was going to end. Christina was possibly thinking that there might have been another item that was a clue towards an hidden immunity idol.

Lets not forget that Troy was an idiot in the bidding just as much as Christina was. Why didn't Troy just say 500 immediately and win the item? Had Christina said 500 first, Troy would have been screwed.

YUUUUPP! People are dumb. Either that or the editors are just lazy and not showing us anything. Cristina was on the outs, it seemed, before the merges, and now she thinks she is rock solid?

Last night was the night to upset the status quo and take charge. Alicia/Cristina could have voted out one of the leaders and renegotiated their position within the tribe AND then voted out Troyzan.

It looked like a core group of 4 (Sabrina, Cat, Kim, Chelsea), 4 Outcasts, and Troy. Well the outcasts could have put themselves in a better position AND still got rid of Troy whenever. Seriously are these people all dumb? I know the show is only an hour with commercials, but the utter lack of showing us what is going on between periphery players just makes us resent them. I can't help but either think these people are really just that dumb, or the editors are sooo lazy. I mean we got to see all the work Rob was putting in to ensure loyalty, what are these girls doing?

And I also think that the girls have been quite antagonistic and less than humble not that they have the power. So I don't feel too bad that Troy is acting a fool. It's not like they're acting humble with power either.

I just watched the episode. It was the first one I saw in HD too. Very pretty.

I think there is an editing problem. Not sure why Troyzan all of a sudden became unglued. He really is crazy if he thinks he can coast to the finals winning immunity every time.

But yeah, nobody takes any chances anymore.

I remember in one of the very early season there was a tight alliance and the voting order was revealed through a challenge. Those players that saw that they were on the block banded together to take control away from the alliance and take back the game. Unless something like that happens the next out will be the remaining guy who doesn't have immunity. Shampoo, rinse, repeat...

Maybe that's why they keep feeding them so often - so they'll be able to think.